In Mayoral Runoff, Rahm Emanuel’s Corrupt Governance Has Finally Caught Up With Him

Email this article to a friend

your email

your name

recipient(s) email (comma separated)

message

captcha

In their way, these Emanuel messages, as misleading as they were, are heartening. This was Karl Rove’s trademark election strategy: attack, with brazen audacity, your opponents’ biggest, most taken-for-granted strength. In this case it was García and Fioretti’s unimpeachable probity, and the fact that they are out to help ordinary Chicagoans, not themselves.

On Tuesday, Chicagoans voted themselves a reprieve. With 45.4 percent of the vote, Mayor Rahm Emanuel ended the first round of his first reelection bid almost five points below what he needed to avoid a runoff election in April—and three points below his performance in the last major pre-election poll. “Mayor 1%” will face second-place finisher Jesus “Chuy” García, the soft-spoken, compassionate Cook County board member who proclaimed himself with a Chicagoan lilt the “neighborhood guy”—who over-performed the poll.

Perhaps what turned some voters against Rahm at the last minute—or motivated them to go to the polls in the first place on a cold Chicago day that started out in the single digits—was an Election Day exposé that appeared in the British paper the Guardian by investigate reporter Spencer Ackerman. “The Disappeared” revealed the existence of Homan Square, a forlorn “black site” that the Chicago Police operate on the West Side.

There, Chicagoans learned—many for the first time—arrestees are locked up for days at a time without access to lawyers. One victim was 15 years old; he was released without being charged with anything. Another, a 44-year-old named John Hubbard, never left—he died in custody. One of the “NATO 3” defendants, later acquitted on most charges of alleged terror plans during a 2012 Chicago protest, was shackled to a bench there for 17 hours.

It “struck legal experts as a throwback to the worst excesses of Chicago police abuse, with a post-9/11 feel to it,” the Guardian reported. And for a candidate, Rahm Emanuel, who ran on a message he was turning the page on the old, malodorous “Chicago way,” the piece contributed to a narrative that proved devastating.

Indeed, the mayor faced a drumbeat of outstanding journalistic exposés all throughout the campaign. The Chicago Sun-Times reported on Deborah Quazzo, an Emanuel school board appointee who runs an investment fund for companies that privatize school functions. They discovered that five companies in which she had an ownership stake have more than tripled their business with the Chicago Public Schools since she joined the board, many of them for contracts drawn up in the suspicious amount of $24,999—one dollar below the amount that required central office approval. (Chicago is the only municipality in Illinois whose school board is appointed by a mayor. But activists succeeded—in an arduous accomplishment against the obstruction attempts of Emanuel backers on the city council—to get an advisory referendum on the ballot in a majority of the city's wards calling for an elected representative school board. Approximately 90 percent of the voters who could vote for the measure did.)

The Chicago Tribune reported that of Emanuel’s top 106 contributors, 60 of them received favors from the city. Another in-depth investigation discovered that City Hall had lied repeatedly about a signature initiative of the Emanuel years, automated cameras that issue tickets for the running of red lights. The administration insisted the cameras led to a 47 percent decline in “T-bone” crashes, when the true number was 15 percent—and they also caused a corresponding 22 percent increase in rear-end collisions. That reinforced suspicions that the cameras weren’t installed for the safety of “the children,” as Emanuel sanctimoniously insists, but are a revenue grab, a regressive tax that falls disproportionately on the poor.

The International Business Times discovered that Emanuel was evading his own, much-trumpeted executive order banning campaign contributions from city contractors by shoveling $38 million in city resources to his donors via “direct voucher payments,” a sketchy loophole that lets businesses get city money without bids or contracts—without, in fact, any way of documenting what the money is used for.

And a joint investigation between public radio station WBEZ and the magazine Catalyst Chicago demonstrated that the Chicago Public Schools CEO Emanuel hired, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, was able to juke the statistics on high school graduation rates—which supposedly went from 70 to 85 percent over the last decade—by contracting with for-profit online education companies that demanded very little work from students, while still allowing them to receive diplomas from the last school they attended.

All the while, Emanuel’s ubiquitous commercials—he spent $7 million of his $15 million war chest on television—and mailers painted Emanuel as a heroic reformer, an Eleanor Roosevelt responsible for showering poorer Chicagoans with favors, and cast his two most prominent opponents, each of them courageous reformers, as old-school Windy City grifters.

In the mailers, Alderman Bob Fioretti, who became such a thorn in the administration’s side he was gerrymandered out of his own ward, was scored for voting for the infamous deal to privatize Chicago’s parking meters—even though the previous Mayor Richard M. Daley sold it to aldermen under screamingly false pretenses and the current mayor has passed up an opportunity to sue to get the unconstitutional contract abrogated. García was attacked for once owing the county back property taxes—an error, García countered, that resulted from getting a tax break he did not request on a home inherited from his dead mother. He promptly fixed the error.

The way the Emanuel ad shamelessly put it? García claimed an “illegal” favor for “two houses at the same time to avoid paying over $8,000 in taxes.” The tag: “Chuy García: Out for himself. Not us.”

In their way, these Emanuel messages, as misleading as they were, are heartening. This was Karl Rove’s trademark election strategy: attack, with brazen audacity, your opponents’ biggest, most taken-for-granted strength. In this case it was García and Fioretti’s unimpeachable probity, and the fact that they are out to help ordinary Chicagoans, not themselves.

This is not just a backhanded tribute to García’s integrity. It suggests a strategy for García to slay Goliath when he and Rahm go head-to-head in the April runoff.

Look at it this way: having purchased the services of the best research dirty money can buy, what Emanuel’s focus group wizards discovered was that Chicago voters care about corruption. They’re desperate to get rid of the old sordid “Chicago way.” Which is why the Emanuel campaign spent so much time and energy tagging his opponents as representatives of that brand of politics.

It suggests García has his work cut out for him in the six weeks he has left: to belabor what is increasingly becoming obvious to Chicagoans—that Rahm Emanuel is a flagrantly corrupt mayor, out for himself, and never for us.

Rick Perlstein, an In These Times contributing editor, is the author of The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan (2014), Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (2008), a New York Times bestseller picked as one of the best nonfiction books of the year by over a dozen publications, and Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, winner of the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Award for history.

This may in fact be true. However, if so, abnormal folks outnumber normal folks by a wide margin.

Posted by Jim Gee on 2015-03-11 15:30:56

Normal people don't install red light cameras and than fix the yellow lights so they are shorted time to raise money off the working poor.

Posted by Jackie on 2015-03-11 05:25:21

Another shady Khazar from the Standard Club. Over and out.

Posted by rickradio11 on 2015-03-09 00:59:35

"We have GOT to stop screening out intelligence and compassion in police hiring and stop training them to be brutal."

Putting cops in prison when they murder and brutalize citizens would solve this problem overnight.

Posted by Alan8 on 2015-03-06 09:09:08

I've contributed to "Chuy" twice, even though I'm from another state. Rahm Emanuel is a corrupt shill for the 1% and a disgrace to the Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party is infested with this scum, which is why it pushes fascist "free-trade" agreements that expand corporate power over citizens, and degrade our quality of life.

I'm going to donate to "Chuy" at least one more time before the election; it's not often I get a chance to fight back at this threat to the 99%.

Posted by Alan8 on 2015-03-06 09:06:33

Normal folks don't speed and run red lights.

Posted by kastigar on 2015-03-06 07:33:49

Great Analysis Rick. It's clear Jesus "Chuy" Garcia has more experience, training and deeper urban city roots to clean-up the Chicago mess created by Mayor Daley and the suburban bully Mayor 1 % Rahm. The election of Jesus Garcia as Chicago's first Mexican Mayor will be historic for many reasons, but more importantly he will be the first American Mayor of a major global city with professional Urban Planning training and experience. The corporate Chicago machine has worked aggressively to prevent any sort of planning because community based planning quickly prevents aggressive unregulated market "cowboy" behavior. Chicago's 10,000 plus shooting, shock and awe closing of 50 public schools , weekly teen deaths from random street shootings and inability to maintain a strong bond rating are all clear examples of why Chicago will now elect an Urban Planner, like Commissioner Garcia to stop the wild bully Rahm corporate machine from destroying a historic city that became great only because of its neighborhood community links that allowed industry, manufacturing, technology, services, arts, sports and food industnries, tourism to develop and provide real middle class jobs that are now disappearing as over 200,000 people are exiting Chicago due to the lack of community planning. Chuy is the real deal and Rahm is clearly an incompetent fraud and Chicago's communities will not be fooled again.

Posted by John Chavez-Pedersen on 2015-03-06 00:49:18

Never go to work sick. Period. Full Stop.

Posted by michtom on 2015-03-02 00:14:17

It hasn't caught up with him unless Chuy Garcia wins the election.

Posted by michtom on 2015-03-02 00:08:57

The study is 10 years old and only marginally beneficial to your argument.

Posted by donna on 2015-03-01 09:30:48

Last time I looked, the cameras were mostly in our wards and there were a few in the rich wards backed by the 1% mayor. I never said one was at Addison/Ashland. I only said I was almost sideswiped by a BMW over there, meaning they don't drive any better than any one else here in the city but they just get away with it and we don't. Scenario, I am a hard working tax paying citizen of Chicago, I get pulled over on Armitage, so I simply pull over and wait for the police. I cannot drive away, I may get killed for that, so I simply wait, knowing I paid my stickers with my hard earned, WORKING money. This cop gives me a ticket for parking in rush hour when I was in my car, simply waiting for him to tell me why he pulled me over. If you think these types of incidents are correct, well really, I don't know what to tell you. Really it is a lost cause and our mayor, worth $14 million, advocates this. Where is this revenue going? Not for our communities, maybe for those downtown who already have so much, but not in our schools, parks, community centers, social service agencies, but for the people who come to Chicago from other places and want to say,"I live in Chicago." t it is whatever to us, really, since it is our blood money that pays for all of this nonsense.

Posted by Mari on 2015-03-01 01:12:08

Last time I looked, the cameras were mostly in our wards and there were a few in the rich wards backed by the 1% mayor. I never said one was at Addison/Ashland. I only said I was almost sideswiped by a BMW over there, meaning they don't drive any better than any one else here in the city.

Posted by Mari on 2015-03-01 00:50:58

Vote! Vote! Vote! And work your heart out for Chuy Garcia! Chicago needs change---and it needs it TODAY.

Posted by jgmurphy on 2015-02-27 11:26:20

Interesting. I hadn't seen that one. The one I cited is hardly the only one that finds a benefit, though. See this review by the world's leading expert-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...

Posted by AlexisCain on 2015-02-27 11:11:55

Rahm's a lost cause, but I'm unhappily surprised that Chuy Garcia has yet to make a comment about Homan. Will his 1000 more cops be better trained, prosecuted for detaining people without processing them?

Posted by ellenbethgill on 2015-02-27 08:29:36

vote against Rahm. vote against neoliberalism. vote against Clinton centrism. put people first. children first. quality of life first. we don't need any more corporate parasites running our cities from the mayor's office. Rahm must go.

Posted by Brian Gilmore on 2015-02-26 23:40:52

There are a hundred studies out there about red light cameras. Congratulations, you've managed to pick one study that found some benefit. However, the biggest meta-study (combining dozens of other smaller studies) done to date, three years after the one you cite, that found no statistically significant benefits, and that the more benefit a study found, the more likely it was to ignore factors such as regression-to-the-mean and locality. http://www.sciencedirect.com/s...

Posted by fredfnord on 2015-02-26 20:07:25

This Chicago crook needs to go.

Posted by Toolonggone on 2015-02-26 19:05:15

It’s become increasingly clear to Chicagoans that Rahm Emanuel is out for himself and his rich friends, not for us.

This should have been obvious long before now. He was Bill Clinton's anti-liberal specialist and corporate bagman. Then Obama's.

In between those Administrations, as DCCC chair he backed the worst Democrats in Congress. People like Heath Shuler.

Thanks! I last saw that map a long time ago, and I see more speed cams have been added since then. I viscerally dislike Rahm, but I can't support Mari's claim about camera placement either.

Posted by Perrofelix on 2015-02-26 14:01:25

Here's a map of red light cameras. http://www.photoenforced.com/c... Does it look to you like there are none in the yuppie neighborhoods by the lake? There isn't one at Ashland and Addison, but there are on Ashland at Irving Park and Addison and Diversey. I wish I had more in my neighborhood.

Posted by AlexisCain on 2015-02-26 10:06:19

No worries. The Godfather will win the runoff. They know how to fix elections in Chicago. Long experience.

Posted by 17_woods on 2015-02-26 08:47:25

My argument would fall apart if I was arguing that Rahm had good motives. But that's not my argument. My argument is that red light cameras are good for public safety.

Posted by AlexisCain on 2015-02-26 06:47:56

Those red light and speed cameras are in predominantly Latino and African American neighborhoods in Chicago as if those Yuppies by the Lake don't drive bad. Why don't they have so many cameras in their neighborhoods? Because they are in Rahm's voting wards and believe me, they drive worse than we do. I was almost sideswiped by a BMW on Addison/Ashland, but that it acceptable to Rahm. If he keeps those cameras, why don't he make them even all over the city? Because he is just looking for money from those who don't have it.

Posted by Mari on 2015-02-26 01:06:52

If he indeed decrease the length of the yellow your defense falls apart. He did it for revenue enhancement, he just used safety as a stalking horse.

"Never let a good crisis go to waste." Emanuel is in a crisis. We have found him out. His moneyed backers (AIPAC) will now pull out all the stops to get him reelected. Let's finish the job & kick him & all other Israel firsters out. This is Chicago, not Israel. Why would a millionaire take the job of mayor with a big pay cut? In the light of what we now know about 911's real perpetrators, why is he here? Point man for the next "false flag"?

Posted by Pat Enery on 2015-02-25 17:25:51

That's it? a long conversation about whether red light cameras are good or bad? Don't you realize you are in the presence of greatness? Get a grip people, this is a Perlstein article. Relish it. Read it 5 times and then ask your friends to do so.Jeesh.Great article Rick, now as to your suggestion that Chuy slam Rahm as corrupt, I think you're better suited for that job and let the rest of us spread the word about the Worst.Mayor.Ever. (trademark pending)I think all Chuy needs to do to win the white northside vote is say Ventra, Ventra, Ventra over and over and over.If you look at where Willie Wilson did well, it is painfully obvious that Chuy needs the south and west side vote to win (in other words, the African American vote).Karen and Jesse can help Chuy there but he needs to spend the next 6 weeks on the south and west sides. Have his campaign say Ventra Ventra Ventra in mailers all over the north side and we can take this thing baby!

Posted by Victor Harbison on 2015-02-25 17:03:33

Really? Please link to study showing that red light cameras reduce serious accidents. Chicago's red light camera enterprise is run by for-profit contractors who receive a percentage of ticket revenues; this constitutes a huge conflict of interest. A recent Tribune investigation revealed that contractors were rigging red light cameras in several key intersections and defrauding motorists for massive "speeding" fines. It is unabashed corruption -- with no accountability.

Posted by NuriaM on 2015-02-25 16:29:40

Wow, that's amazing, katepery. The last Renault 4 was built in 1992 and was a cheap old thing then. Now it's 23 years old. A rare find, since they were not imported into the US and most disappeared in a pile of rust years ago.

Posted by emjayay on 2015-02-25 16:02:02

Well, it's part of a larger program by the current administration to balance the budgets by increasing fees and taxes on normal folks.

It isn't working very well. There's a large, structural deficits that can only be addressed by gutting city services and pensions (which will make everyone furious and/or be IL unconstitutional for the pensions) or by raising property taxes.

No one dares mentioning property taxes. It's become the third rail, but what the heck else are you going to do?

Posted by scottmpriz on 2015-02-25 15:38:08

I'm not trying to defend Emanuel. I'm just saying don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. I hope Mayor Garcia will keep the red light program, run correctly. The fact that the city will get some revenue from it doesn't seem like a terrible thing.

Posted by AlexisCain on 2015-02-25 15:14:41

Is that why Rahm decreased the yellow light length? because he cares so much for our health?

This was a money grab, for Rahm and his insiders. That it may reduce traffic fatalities was just a place to hang their hat.

Posted by scottmpriz on 2015-02-25 14:56:19

There is more than one way to reduce intersection accidents. Red light cameras are a proven way to reduce serious accidents. The fact that they also collect revenue doesn't change that. Increasing the yellow interval may or may not reduce accidents. Studies show that an increased interval at a few intersections results in fewer crashes, but that doesn't mean that increasing the interval everywhere will reduce crashes. As drivers become habituated to a longer interval, they will make use of as much of the interval as possible, potentially resulting in more speeding through intersections. Not clear whether that's a net benefit, unlike red light cameras, which are a clear safety enhancer.

Posted by AlexisCain on 2015-02-25 14:01:28

Studies have also shown the surest way to reduce intersection accidents is to increase the length of the yellow light interval, but obviously that doesn't add anything to the City's coffers. Red light cameras are nothing more than a revenue enhancement.

Posted by Mikhail Hill on 2015-02-25 13:18:18

...and we MUST vote!

Posted by Mikhail Hill on 2015-02-25 13:15:04

I'm no fan of Rahm (I voted for Chuy), but that "in-depth investigation" by the Chicago Tribune was bogus. Unlike other studies of the impact of red light cameras, which also found decreases in t-bone crashes and increases in rear-end collisions, the Tribune study didn't take into account the severity of crashes. Studies that do take severity into account find that red light cameras reduce fatalities and improve public safety. See http://chi.streetsblog.org/201...

Posted by AlexisCain on 2015-02-25 11:45:55

Brooklyn . I see what you mean... Irene `s blog is terrific... on thursday I bought a top of the range Renault 4 from having made $4131 this-past/five weeks and more than 10 grand this past-month . with-out a doubt this is the easiest job Ive had . I started this 7-months ago and right away began to earn over $83,

As citizens we have got to stand up and demand change. We have GOT to stop screening out intelligence and compassion in police hiring and stop training them to be brutal. Please read, sign and SHARE my petition against police brutality. Thanks!https://secure.avaaz.org/en/pe...